|
Spirit Spouse
The spirit spouse is a widespread element of shamanism, distributed through all continents and at all cultural levels. Often, these spirit husbands/wives are seen as the primary helping spirits of the shaman, who assist them in their work, and help them gain power in the world of spirit. The relationships shamans have with their spirit spouses may be expressed in romantic, sexual, or purely symbolic ways, and may include gender transformation as a part of correctly pairing with their "spouse". Shamans report engaging with their spirit spouses through dreams, trance, and other ritual elements. In some cultures, gaining a spirit spouse is a necessary and expected part of initiation into becoming a shaman. Examples of spirit spouses may be seen in non-shamanic cultures as well, including dreams about Jesus Christ by nuns, who are considered to be "brides of Christ". Particular instances Africa Ewe of Togo: variant in Haiti ( Vodou)"Wedding ceremonies between Vodou divinities and their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shamanism
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. Beliefs and practices categorized as shamanic have attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. Terminology Etymology The Modern English word ''shamanism'' derives from the Russian word , , which itself comes from the word from a Tungusic language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples, or from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abaasy
The Abaasy (Abaahy or Abasy, , ''Abaası'' baːsɯ Dolgan: Абааһы, ''Abaahı''; , ''Abaasi''; , ''Abasy''; cognate of the Turkic word ''Abası''; also ''Chebeldei'') are demons in the mythology of the Sakha (also known as the Yakuts). Yakut shamanism divides the universe into upper and lower layers, with the earth being "a kind of indeterminate space or matter" in between. The abaasy occupy the lower level, referred to as the underworld or "kingdom of darkness." The abaasy are alleged to be the spirits of the long deceased, who dwell near graves or in deserted places, or who otherwise travel about causing destruction. They serve Arson-Duolai, the ruler of the dead, who also swallows people's souls and gives the living diseases. The abaasy can be appeased by blood sacrifices. The abaasy have been depicted as causing sexual manifestations and madness. Description The abbasy are described as "one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged" monsters mounted on "two-headed, eight-legged, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divine Marriage
''Hieros gamos'', (from and 'marriage') or hierogamy (, 'holy marriage') is a sacred marriage that takes place between gods, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. The notion of ''hieros gamos'' does not always presuppose literal sexual intercourse in ritual, but is also used in purely symbolic or mythological contexts, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology. ''Hieros gamos'' is described as the prototype of fertility rituals. Ancient Near East Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the Ancient Near East as a form of "Sacred Marriage" or hieros gamos between the kings of a Sumerian city-state and the High Priestesses of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of Eanna, meaning "house of heaven" in Uruk was the greatest of these. The temple housed Nadītu, priest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two-Spirit
''Two-spirit'' (also known as ''two spirit'' or occasionally ''twospirited'', or abbreviated as ''2S'' or ''2E'', especially in Canada) is a umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) social role in their communities. Coined in 1990 as a primarily ceremonial term promoting community recognition, in recent years more individuals have taken to self-identifying as two-spirit. Two-spirit, as a term and concept, is neither used nor accepted universally in Native American cultures. Indigenous cultures that have traditional roles for gender-nonconforming people have names in their own Indigenous languages for these people and the roles they fill in their communities. The initial intent in coining the term was to differentiate Indigenous concepts of gender and sexuality from those of non-Native lesbians and gays and to replace the pejorative anthropological terms that were stil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who share a common social, religious, and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage as Mapudungun speakers. Their homelands once extended from Choapa River, Choapa Valley to the Chiloé Archipelago and later spread eastward to Puelmapu, a land comprising part of the Pampas, Argentine pampa and Patagonia. Today the collective group makes up over 80% of the Indigenous peoples in Chile and about 9% of the total Chilean population. The Mapuche are concentrated in the Araucanía (historic region), Araucanía region. Many have migrated from rural areas to the cities of Santiago and Buenos Aires for economic opportunities, more than 92% of the Mapuches are from Chile. The Mapuche traditional e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pachamama
Pachamama is a goddess revered by the Indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an " Earth Mother" type goddess, Dransart, Penny. (1992) "Pachamama: The Inka Earth Mother of the Long Sweeping Garment." ''Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning.'' Ed. Ruth Barnes and Joanne B. Eicher. New York/Oxford: Berg. 145-63. Print. and a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own creative power to sustain life on Earth. Her shrines are hallowed rocks, or the boles of legendary trees, and her artists envision her as an adult female bearing harvests of potatoes or coca leaves. The four cosmological Quechua principles – Water, Earth, Sun, and Moon – claim Pachamama as their prime origin. Priests sacrifice offerings of llamas, ''cuy'' ( guinea pigs), and elaborate, miniature, burned garments to her. Pachamama is the mother of Inti the sun go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Momostenango
Momostenango is a Municipalities of Guatemala, municipality in the Totonicapán Department, Totonicapán department of Guatemala. The municipality is situated in the North-West of Totonicapán, in the Western highlands of Guatemala. Population Momostenango's population is predominantly of Maya Kʼicheʼ descent. 70% of the population lives in rural areas and most are small farmers growing maize, beans for their own consumption, and wheat. The municipality is subdivided in the town of Momostenango, 14 villages and 169 smaller communities called ''caseríos'' or ''parajes''. Momostenango is the birthplace of the Maya Kʼicheʼ poet Humberto Ak'ab'al (1952-2019), who writes in Kʼicheʼ language, Kʼicheʼ (Quiché) and in Spanish language, Spanish. Geography Momostenango borders to the North with the municipalities of Malacatancito (Huehuetenango (department), Huehuetenango), San Bartolo, Totonicapán, San Bartolo and Santa Lucía La Reforma, to its South with San Francisco El Alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Tedlock
Barbara Helen Tedlock (born September 9, 1942- September 11,2023) was an American cultural anthropologist and oneirologist. She was a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York, Buffalo. Her work explores cross-cultural understanding and communication of dreams, ethnomedicine, and aesthetics and focuses on the indigenous Zuni of the Southwestern United States and the Kʼicheʼ Maya of Mesoamerica. Through her study and practice of the healing traditions of the Kʼicheʼ Maya of Guatemala, Tedlock became initiated into shamanism. She was the collaborator and wife of the late anthropologist and poet Dennis Tedlock. Early life and education Barbara Helen Tedlock was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, to Byron Taylor and Mona Gerteresse (O'Connor) McGrath. Tedlock earned a Bachelor's degree in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967. In 1973, she earned a Master's in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aumakua
In Hawaiian mythology, an ʻaumakua (; often spelled aumakua, plural, aumākua) is a personal or family god that originated as a deified ancestor, and which takes on physical forms such as spirit vehicles. An 'aumakua may manifest as a shark, owl, bird, octopus, or inanimate objects such as plants or rocks. The word ʻaumakua means ancestor gods and is derived from the Hawaiian words au which means period of time or era, and makua meaning parent, parent generation, or ancestor. Hawaiians believed that deceased family members would transform into ʻaumakua and watch over their descendants with a loving concern for them while also being the judge and jury of their actions. ʻAumakua were believed to watch over their families and hear their words, give them strength and guidance, warn them of misfortune or danger, give punishments to wrong-doers while also rewarding worthy people with prosperity in the after life, and pass on prayers from the living to the akua (gods). Hawaiia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etiology
Etiology (; alternatively spelled aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek word ''()'', meaning "giving a reason for" (). More completely, etiology is the study of the causes, origins, or reasons behind the way that things are, or the way they function, or it can refer to the causes themselves. The word is commonly used in medicine (pertaining to causes of disease or illness) and in philosophy, but also in physics, biology, psychology, political science, geography, cosmology, spatial analysis and theology in reference to the causes or origins of various phenomena. In the past, when many physical phenomena were not well understood or when histories were not recorded, myths often arose to provide etiologies. Thus, an etiological myth, or origin myth, is a myth that has arisen, been told over time or written to explain the origins of various social or natural phenomena. For example, Virgil's ''Aeneid'' is a national myth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lilu (mythology)
A lilu or lilû is the masculine Akkadian word for a spirit or demon. A female lilû was called a lilītu or ardat-lilî. Together, these were a class of demon that the ancient Mesopotamians believed emerged from the unfulfilled spirits of adolescents who died before marriage or conceiving children. "Lilû" and its root word lil- also show wider meanings linked to spirits, desolation, and wild creatures. History Scurlock and Andersen (2005) attribute the origin of "the lilû class of demons" (pg. 434) to treatment of neurological and mental disorders as well as STDs such as syphilis (pg. 95). An abundance of cuneiform text characterizes the lilû as "teenage demons". (pg. 273). As these demons were thought to afflict members of the opposite sex, lilû were often held responsible for illnesses afflicting girls (pg. 434). Scurlock and Andersen suggest an association with Istar, although not necessarily positively, as one ardat-lilî was described as "mistreated by the hand o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
